Actor John Sessions has claimed there is a "management tumour" at the BBC which has led to millions of pounds being squandered by bosses as programme budgets grow ever tighter.

The Whose Line is It Anyway? star said one of the biggest wastes of money in recent times was the decision to relocate the BBC to the north west.

Speaking at the launch of his new BBC2 film We're Doomed – The Making of Dad's Army, in which he plays Arthur Lowe, Sessions said that the original shoot was slashed from four weeks to just two, leaving them on a “very tight” schedule.

"If the brass at the BBC hadn't lost their marbles and decided to set the BBC in Salford – there might be a little bit more money going around," he declared.

The actor doesn't support the move

"I just wish the executives would stop building buildings. They are obsessed and it makes me very cross because we have to try and do our job under much more pressure than we should have to deal with.

"I don't want to sound like a whinging old luvvie but the management culture at the BBC has become so pervasive and so money monopolised that we're all doing these things on ridiculous schedules."

He blamed the moves on previous leaders including former director general John Birt.

"People who earn between £600 -£700,000 a year decided to move the BBC from the city which has been the capital since the Romans, to a – let's face it – not very nice part of Salford.

He's had a storied career

"It's so dangerous that security guards have to get people from the car park to this ghastly management academy. I believe they spent billions on that building.

"They moved the whole sport facility then they remembered, 'oh gosh, we have to do the Olympics this summer' so all the sports stuff had to be moved back again. These people are paid a fortune to think about elementary questions like that all day long.”

However, the BBC says that no managers are paid six or seven hundred thousand pounds and denies its security guards are needed to escort people.

A spokesman for the corporation also said it is not true that that BBC Sport was moved back to London from Salford for the Olympics.

Sessions, 62, said that when Dad's Army had been made there were far fewer executives which meant programme-makers were given far more autonomy.

“I just think there is a management culture which John Birt introduced - perfectly affable man, he's not Hitler - but what he did at the BBC was catastrophic.

The BBC's home in Salford (Image: MEN Syndication)

"And one of the things he destroyed was the in-house training programme. People are not trained by the top editors and cameramen – that was a ludicrous thing to lose.

"Lots of people wearing baggy old corduroys were given their marching orders because they didn't look good sipping mineral water. There was a terrible night of the long knives back in the late 80s and 90s which the BBC has not recovered from."

In the film he plays Lowe, who was famously grumpy and often fluffed his lines.

Sessions, a UKIP supporter, complained that he did not get enough recognition for his previous roles when attending auditions.

“When you're an old codger like me, what you've done in the past - it's llike you haven't done it. I've got 200 entries on my CV, but you go into a room and you're just some old geezer.

A BBC Spokesperson said: “We have cut Senior Manager numbers and costs by a third as part of our work to save £150m from the total paybill.

"Whilst BBC North has allowed us to get closer to our audiences and has had a huge impact both economically and culturally. The relocation was done on time and under budget and BBC North is one of the BBC's most efficient centres delivering around £168m cumulative savings to date."